True Friends

Well it had to eventually happen, that sad sorrowful parting of friends.

In her time she was very faithful: endless hours of patience, never once complaining no matter what hour of the day you called on her, Fun, long suffering, faithful. But her time had come. She was just too costly to keep, and she was going to cramp our style with a new baby so we had to let her go (sigh!).

Today I went to the local Hyundai dealer to trade in our beloved Tiburon (153,000 miles). It really did sadden me. It has been a wonderful car. I hope all of our cars will be so faithful and reliant and FUN!

So today I said goodbye to a dear old friend with the help of a very good friend (Buddy Hucks).
I'm here to say any friend willing to sit through negotiations for 4 hrs with you is a true friend. When it came to numbers I got lost as they managed to wonderfully play hide and seek with the details. Thanks to Buddy we found our way through it! So 4 hrs later, brains hurting, stomachs empty I walked out to meet my new friend: a carbon gray Elantra. Here's hoping to another 6 (or more) years of pretty much hassle free driving!

The cool thing is my sick wife willingly stepped out to look at the new car. I even got to take her for a spin (to get more cold medicine that the doctor gave the OK to take). 6 years ago, when I brought home the Tiburon she burst into tears (due to the fact that it was an impulse buy and the wrong color), today I nervously introduced her to our new car and what does she say?

"Oh, it's cute! I love the color!"

What do I hear? CUTE! I just bought a cute car! I have to go shoot something now to prove that I'm a man! CUTE?! Great, now I'll have to duck down every time I drive it. Oh well, can't win them all.

All kidding aside it's weird though, I bought it for one reason: safety. I just wanted the safest car I could afford to hold my family. Looks had very little to do with it. 6 air bags, standard ABS was what I was after( reliability helps too. Apparently only Porsche and Lexus beat Hyundai in that), guess I'm actually growing up.

So enough with the talking. Here she is: the carrier of the Cowan family for at least the next 150,000 miles (I hope):

Don't let her cuteness fool you, she's real MEAN! :)